Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

Nation Christian: Mike Woodbury will continue basketball program after resigning as CEO

PORT ST. LUCIE — A private nonprofit Christian school that's been under scrutiny since October is under new leadership today, since controversial CEO Mike Woodbury resigned Friday, stepping aside to allow his school to merge with another.

The 125-student Barnabas Christian Academy, formerly The Nation Christian Academy, in the Marketplace at Port St. Lucie shopping center, will merge with the 300-student Saint Lucie Christian, in the Orange Blossom Business Center in Fort Pierce.

Kimberly Baumgardner, executive director of Saint Lucie Christian since 2006, was named Barnabas' CEO and board president Friday. She was at Barnabas Monday morning, meeting staff, reviewing records and planning its future.

Baumgardner, whose husband, Jason, is senior pastor of the Pentecostal Truth Church of the Treasure Coast, has been Children’s Church lead teacher there since 2008.

Barnabas' new board, according to state records and Jason Baumgardner, is:

Vice President Paul McNutt, a retired missionary

Treasurer Rocky Whiteside, a retired pastor and Truth Church staff member

Secretary Carol Horton, St. Lucie Christian's finance director

Director Michael David Baumgardner, the Baumgardners' son and St. Lucie Christian's IT director

Director Edward Myers, a Realtor with Meant 2b Realty

Baumgardner's husband said she plans to continue to employ Ray Askew, Barnabas' "spiritual administrator" and top school official, but hasn't decided whether to move Barnabas students to the Fort Pierce school or keep them at the Port St. Lucie school, which would require resolving the eviction filed by the plaza's new owner.

Daniel T. Shoffet, the principal of DTS Properties, bought the plaza in December and filed for eviction Feb. 1, claiming the school owes him over $40,700 in rent.

Buy Photo

The Nation Christian Academy campus is seen Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, at 10330 U.S. 1 in Port St. Lucie. The post-graduate football team had a winning first season, but various concerns have come to light after a profanity-laced tirade from school CEO Mike Woodbury went viral.(Photo: XAVIER MASCAREÑAS/TCPALM)

The Nation Basketball

He will have no role in the merged schools and they will not have a basketball team, Askew told TCPalm Monday. The players may opt to continue their education at Saint Lucie Christian if they pay tuition — in addition to what they pay Woodbury to play basketball. Students, coaches and one parent have told TCPalm the Barnabas/Nation Christian tuition was about $10,000.

Woodbury, however, told TCPalm nothing has changed and the boys are unaffected.

"You’re bringing up nonsense," he said. "It's really simple. The students are still students of the school. Every student who was a student of the school (Barnabas/Nation Christian) is now a student at Saint Lucie Christian and they will continue to be students."

TCPalm is still investigating, under the changing conditions, the validity of the students' Homeland Security I-20 forms, required for them to attend a U.S. school.

Buy Photo

A six-bedroom residence on Southwest Savona Boulevard — reported to house 40 players and a "house mom" for Nation Christian Academy — is seen Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, in Port St. Lucie. The post-graduate football team had a winning first season, but various concerns have come to light after a profanity-laced tirade from school CEO Mike Woodbury went viral.(Photo: XAVIER MASCAREÑAS/TCPALM)

Overcrowded housing

Woodbury's roster includes 50 foreign-exchange students he houses in an apartment complex near the Roosevelt Bridge in Stuart, Jason Baumgardner said.

He also housed some students in another leased home in Port St. Lucie, according to a woman from the Netherlands' complaint to TCPalm and the city Police Department.

Ester Maatkamp said her 19-year-old son, Jordi, returned home Jan. 14 "completely devastated" after 4½ months in the U.S., where he came on a soccer scholarship and the promise of playing on the Nation Christian's soccer team, which doesn't exist.

He was shuttled to the Port St. Lucie United Soccer Club and lived in overcrowded housing — "eight persons per dorm room with one shower" — and very little food, she said.

"There are so many things wrong at this school," she told TCPalm and police. "If kids speak up or say anything, they are threatened to be sent back to their home country."

TCPalm began investigating the school after its Oct. 31 story about viral YouTube audio of Woodbury berating and threatening a student from Haiti who lived with him.

TCPalm last week reported on Woodbury's criminal record in Maine and posted surveillance video of him attacking a man in a hallway at South Portland Community College after an AAU basketball tournament game, with young players watching.

Port St. Lucie police are investigating Maatkamp's complaints, but will not comment on details.

TCPalm last week also reported on the eviction, impending move and Florida Department of Education's site visit to review records.

Barnabas officials contacted the Baumgardners about merging schools a few weeks ago, Jason Baumgardner told TCPalm Monday. In an email Saturday, he said:

"Although we thought it would strengthen both schools, Kim ultimately decided that with the current circumstances it was not a viable option as long as Mr. Woodbury remained on the team. Last week we began to discuss another option in which Mr. Woodbury would resign from the board, from the school and any leadership position with Barnabas and Kim would then be installed as president and appoint a new board of directors. Mr. Woodbury agreed to these terms this past week so we initiated the transfer with the secretary of the state."

Who is Kim Baumgardner?

In a letter attached to an email sent to TCPalm Saturday, Kim Baumgardner said:

"I have been a children’s advocate serving our community for the last 25 years right here on the Treasure Coast. I have been a social worker, a teacher, worked as an administrator of schools, served as an alcohol and drug abuse counselor, taught parenting, contracted with the United Way, I have served as an administrator of
a Bible college, a principal, and ran a successful abstinence program for teenagers. I am at heart an educator with a mission to better our community. I believe we can provide a quality education to our children and still introduce them to our creator and help every child discover their destiny, potential and purpose."

Early Intervention and Parenting program at Tri-County TEC/Helping Families Succeed, 1996-2002

Teen educator/assessments at Program to Aid Drug Abusers, 1993-95

Program specialist at Good Samaritan Medical Center, 1990-92

Her church affiliations include:

Christian Fellowship Alive, 1997-2003 and 2006-08

Community Christian Church/Hope Assembly of God, 1995-96

Baumgardner graduated Jupiter High School in 1984 and Palm Beach Atlantic University in 1989, with a double-major bachelor's in political science and business management. In theology, she obtained her bachelor's in 2006 and masters in 2007.

Barnabas and St. Lucie Christian are "mainstream evangelical" K-12 schools, Jason Baumgardner said. The latter is a subsidiary of Treasure Coast Youth and Community Development Corp.

Below: Read Baumgardner's letter to the Barnabas community and her resume